Quiet Beats
by Dragonfly996
Summary: There are some sounds that only a cat can pick up. One of those sounds holds an important secret to the heroine of Paris. One that she was determined to keep until an Akuma confirmed the thoughts of one black cat. Blind!Marinette/Ladybug AU
Author's Note: Wow I completely forgot I had this account, but I was talking to some friends on Skype a day or so ago about the Blind!Adrien AU that is going on around Tumblr. Naturally I had to respond with a Blind!Marinette AU. So this is one of possibly many drabbles that I will be writing for the AU. Important thing to know is that in this AU Marinette is still Ladybug but as Ladybug she has wings and she can use echolocation to see objects and where she is going among other things. Pardon if this is really bad I'm very rusty at writing Fanfiction. Enjoy!

Chat Noir was an observant cat underneath all of the puns, witty banter and flirting. When he met Ladybug he immediately noticed something was different about her. Her eyes were one of the first things that caught his attention, and the lack of color. When he asked about it, she replied that it was part of the costume. He never had a reason to doubt her, he saw how she moved and it was clear to him that she could see. There was no way she could move like that without seeing, and whatever secrets she held behind those eyes he might not ever figure out.

During the quiet nights of patrol, where he took the lead by her request there was always a quiet sound that he heard. Most of the time the sound was masked by the loud noises of the city, and for the first few months he just assumed the quiet beating he heard was another one of the city noises. But as time passed and he got more comfortable with the city he learned that soft beating noise was not coming from the city below them, rather it came from his partner. If he paid attention, he heard that soft, rhythmic beat coming from Ladybug at all times, even if they were just sitting on top of the Eiffel Tower just relaxing.

At first he found the sound a bit annoying when he heard it on patrols, but soon grew used to it and thought nothing more of the sound. That soft, rhythmic beat eventually became reassuring to Chat, if he picked up on it that meant that his bugaboo was nearby. He always felt better while he was with Ladybug, because he knew that as long as she was with him that they could do anything together. No one, not even Hawk Moth could stop them as long as they were together. But that all changed one night, the night that he saw an expression on her face that he never saw on Ladybug's face before. Sheer terror.

The Akuma was spraying some sticky goop all over Paris, and Chat Noir really didn't pay attention to the reason behind it. He was too focused not to get hit, and he didn't even want to think about how long that goop would take to get out of his hair after the fight if the Miraculous Cure didn't remove it. But that was when he heard it, a cry of distress. He dodged another blast and glanced over to where the cry came from. It was Ladybug stuck to the floor that goop covered the spotted body of his partner, and most importantly her wings. He strained his hearing to see if he could pick up that soothing beat, but heard nothing. This was the first time since he meeting her that he didn't hear that sound and all that did was reinforce his theory about that noise. The only things that he could was his own breathing of everyone in the area. The Akuma mentioned something about being back and then left the duo alone, apparently preoccupied with something else. Chat Noir didn't pay any attention to what the Akuma said, he was focused on his trapped partner.

He was grateful for the break; it gave him time to figure out how to get Ladybug out of this sticky situation. He smiled at his own joke but as he got closer, he decided that it would be a better idea to keep his jokes to himself for right now. He noticed how freaked out she was and as time passed his theory about her just grew seemed more and more real. It was as if she didn't know that he was there actually from his perspective it looked like she didn't know where anything was. He took a step closer to her, only instead of being quiet like he normally does he put extra force behind his step to make a noise. Her reaction was to reach for her yo-yo which resulted in Chat Noir raising an eyebrow at her. Ladybug struggled with the goop as it was severely restricting her movement right now.

"M'lady is everything alright?"

Chat Noir spoke up holding his hands up innocently as he watched Ladybug relax. She made direct eye contact with him, yet in her eyes it didn't seem like she was registering that he was there. She kept on looking around as if to locate him. He never saw Ladybug this stressed out or disoriented before in any of their fights. She always seemed so confident in herself, so aware of her surroundings, but now she looked scared and disoriented.

"I'll… I'll be fine Chat. Just please get me out."

Her tone of voice almost sounded like begging to the leather clad hero. He kept on glancing around trying to figure out how to get her out. The only conclusion that he reached was using Cataclysm on the goop. He figured that there was no harm in, best case scenario would be destroying what was keeping Ladybug pinned to the ground, with the worst case being nothing changes and he would have to change back to Adrien. He walked slowly over to her and bent down near the goop but not touching it. He knew that talking Ladybug through this would be his best bet, since something was going on that she wasn't telling him. But he had already had his assumptions at what was going on here but he wasn't going to block out other possibilities until he got a confirmation.

"Okay, I'm going to use my Cataclysm on the goop. That should dissolve it and let you stand up again."

He explained to her as he awaited a response from her. It took Ladybug a minute to think it over before she nodded in agreement. He stood up and reached for that power deep inside him, his last resort and went through the all too familiar movements. He knew that would drain Plagg of all of his energy but he couldn't purify Akuma and he didn't want to leave Ladybug alone like this in her state.

"Cataclysm!"

He cried out as his fist became charged with energy and he touched a large portion of the goop that dissolved away just as he thought. Soon Ladybug was back on her feet, none of the binding agent was left visible on her body. As soon as she was standing, the soft, rhythmic beat returned and that was the confirmation that he needed. The minute that beating returned, Ladybug relaxed and her posture changed. He knew that he needed to talk to her and quickly.

"Thank you chaton."

She smiled at him, as once again he looked into her eyes. They seemed calm once again, but deep down there was still something there, there was still a tint of fear. He could hear his Miraculous start to beep, meaning that he was down to four minutes to move this conversation somewhere else.

"Ladybug we need to talk and we need to talk now."

"But your Miraculous."

"That can wait. Get on my back."

He told her firmly his voice held none of his trademark jokes, this was something he wasn't backing down from. He knew that he still had some smelly Camembert hidden under his jacket that he could feed Plagg when the ring timed out. He watched her bite her lip before walking over to him and climbing onto his back. He knew that she was perfectly capable of following him but he just wanted to carry her in case Cataclysm still had her wings not working fully. Once he felt that her weight was secured on his back he took off running, since he had a passenger he couldn't go full speeds but in the two minutes he had, he got the two of them to an empty alleyway that no one would find them. He gently let her down as his Miraculous beeped for the final time, warning him that he only had a minute to go.

"Chat you need to go your Miraculous is going to time out."

"We need to talk, how about you just shut your eyes while I feed my kwami?"

Chat Noir suggested to her as he knew that he could leave her alone like normal, but after what happened with that goop he didn't want to leave her alone, not until they had a chance to talk. Ladybug bit her lip indecisive on what to do, but eventually she complied and shut her eyes. Just in time too as Plagg couldn't keep the transformation and flew out of the ring, Adrien caught him with one hand and reached inside his jacket for that smelly piece of cheese and gave it to the kwami. Plagg took the cheese without a peep as Adrien put him on his shoulder to eat in peace.

"Bugaboo… Are you okay? You looked very stressed out and scared back there."

Adrien asked her, as he kept on reminding him that he was Chat Noir and had to be in that Chat Noir mindset. But the worry in his voice was evident as he watched Ladybug with her eyes shut bit her lip and looked away from him. Just from that subtle movement he could tell that she wasn't okay, that she was hurting but he knew that he wouldn't pry because that is not how partners work. He wanted to help her, but first she had to let him in. But from his view point, she wasn't going to. He didn't know if it was because she was embarrassed, scared, or what emotions were going on in that head of hers. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, trying to figure out where to go from here. The only thing he could think of was to get that confirmation from her.

"Ladybug… what color are my eyes?"

"What?"

Ladybug couldn't help but gasp in surprise at that question and she didn't have an answer. Because she didn't know what color his eyes were, she didn't know what any colors were and she never asked for details about what Chat Noir looked like from Tikki. Because she saw no point, she wouldn't understand it anyways, she was barely starting to understand what shapes were. She didn't know what to do now that Chat knew that she was blind. She didn't want anyone to know that the super heroine of Paris was blind. She was about to burst into tears that he found out, she tied that secret with her civilian identity on levels of importance. It wasn't because she didn't trust Chat to not tell anyone, she didn't want him to find out because she didn't want to lose him as a friend and partner. She feared that if he found out that she couldn't see that he wouldn't want to work with her. Not that she blamed him… who would want to work with someone who is blind. What came next took her completely off guard, she felt his arms wrap around her protectively.

"Why didn't you tell me when we met bugaboo?"

His voice was soft; he wasn't judging her for keeping secrets at all. He was hurt that she decided to keep something this massive hidden from him, but he wasn't going to get angry over it. He just rubbed her back, careful not to touch her wings. Even if he didn't have the full extent of Chat Noir's hearing as Adrien, he could hear her sobbing into his clothes and a frown appeared on the model's face.

"B…Because I was afraid… afraid you wouldn't want to work with a blind Ladybug… and that you would treat me differently because I can't see."

Those words broke his heart, he didn't see Ladybug any differently if she was blind or not. She was still Ladybug and he still loved her, and the girl behind that mask without a doubt. But based on what she said, he could understand why he always heard that faint beating noise. He could hear it even now if he focused in on his hearing.

"I don't care if you are blind or have twenty-twenty vision you are still my lady and nothing will change that."

"You mean that Chat?"

"I swear on my Miraculous that is true. Would I ever lie to you?"

She shook her head no as he pushed her away ever so slightly so he could see her face. He gently swiped a tear off of that beautiful face and saw a smile creep onto her face. He didn't know how long she was keeping that fear hidden away. But after that she moved away on her own and took some deep breaths to calm herself down. Plagg had finish eating and he was just content to watch the two, not interfering just yet.

"How long have you known?"

She asked, her voice was still a bit unsteady but this was such a big reveal for her that she was having issues keeping her emotions and her voice stable. She heard a chuckle come from Chat Noir, and even if he was back as his civilian self, she was not a single step closer to figuring out who that cat was. But she didn't think she could handle both of her biggest secrets getting revealed in one night, even if it is to her partner. The one person she trusted the most in the world.

"I've had theories for a while… I have feline hearing you know so I always heard a soft, rhythmic beat coming from you. For a bit I thought it was just city noise that I wasn't used to hearing. But then I realized that it was your wings that were constantly moving. I couldn't figure out why until I saw your wings stop moving and you started to freak out."

She just nodded her head, that all made sense. She was aware that her wings were always moving even if she wasn't using them to fly. She asked Tikki about the noise and the kwami reassured her that the noise wouldn't be picked up by normal people. But then again Chat Noir had the hearing of a cat thanks to his Miraculous so she should have figured that he would have picked up on the sound of her wings.

"Yeah… The media is wrong, this isn't a change my Miraculous brings, this is my normal eye color… or in my case lack of color. I've been blind for a long time. My wings allow me to use echolocation to figure out where I am. That's why I can do all of these stunts and fight against Hawk Moth without my vision. That's why I got so stressed out back there. Because if my wings aren't moving then I can't _see_ anything and it's scary. So that's why I freaked out back there."

She explained, knowing that she gave a bit about her personal life to Chat Noir, but it was such a small detail that she really didn't care that he knew. She knew that she wasn't the only blind person in Paris. But now that she calmed down she found it in her to add her sassy remarks back in.

"Now that you know chaton you better not tell anyone or I will skin you and if you start treating me like a fragile doll I will not talk to you again."

She heard Chat laugh back and she laughed with him, all of the tension that was in the air was gone and all that was left was her, Chat Noir and his Kwami. She decided to open her eyes since he knew that it wouldn't matter since she can't see anything.

"Don't worry I won't tell anyone. But don't worry m'lday I paw-mise that I won't treat you any differently."

Adrien chuckled as he saw his partner just groan and smack her face and shook her head at him. He couldn't help that as Chat Noir, or being in the mindset of Chat Noir he was paw-some at puns. He looked down and saw Plagg waiting for him patiently. Or at least not bringing up that he was done so he wouldn't have to go back into the ring. With Plagg, Adrien never knew what was going on in the Kwami's mind.

"We still have an Akuma to catch and a city to restore. Plagg! Claws out!"

He cried out as he transformed back into Chat Noir, and he felt so much better now that he knew what that sound was about. He knew that he needed to protect Ladybug's wings now just as much of the rest of her body. He was about to suggest that they get going, but Ladybug was already ahead of him, taking to the sky as he pulled his baton out to reach the rooftops.

"Try to keep up kitty!"

Ladybug felt better now that one of her biggest secrets was out, it was a weight that was lifted off of her chest as she giggled and saw through her echolocation that Chat was right behind her. She knew that nothing has changed between the two, and she wondered if she should go home and look up some blind jokes just to tease Chat with.


End file.
